history of the University of Paris. He invited William II., Count of
Holland and King of the Romans, to a supper in his monastic house at
Cologne. Although it was midwinter Albertus had tables prepared in
the garden of the convent; the earth was covered with snow, and the
courtiers who accompanied William murmured at the imprudence and folly
of the philosopher in exposing the prince to the severity of such
weather. As they sat down, however, the snow suddenly disappeared, and
they felt not only the softness of spring, but the garden was filled
with odoriferous flowers; the birds flew about as in summer, singing
their most delightful notes, and the trees appeared in blossom. Their
surprise at this metamorphosis of nature was considerably heightened
when, at the end of the repast, these wonders disappeared in a moment,
and the cold wind began to blow with its accustomed rigour.
The life of Albertus belongs to the history of theology. He was born
in Suabia, at Larvigen, on the Danube, in 1205. He is accredited with
excessive stupidity in his youth, but his devotion to the Virgin
was rewarded by a vision, which was accompanied by an intellectual
illumination, and he became one of the greatest doctors of his time.
He was made provincial of the Dominicans, and was appointed to the
bishopric of Ratisbon, which he subsequently resigned to pursue his
scientific and philosophic studies in a delightful conventual retreat
at Cologne. In his old age he relapsed into the mediocrity of his
earlier years, which gave rise to the saying that from an ass he was
transformed into a philosopher, and from a philosopher he returned into
an ass.
The term Magnus, which has been applied to him, is not the consequence
of his reputation. It is the Latin equivalent of his family name,
Albert de Groot.
Among the spurious works attributed to him is that entitled _Les
Admirables Secrets d’Albert le Grand_, which is concerned with the
virtues of herbs, precious stones, and animals, with an abridgment of
physiognomy, methods for preservation against the plague, malignant
fevers, poisons, &c. The first book treats of the planetary influences
in their relation to nativities, of the magical properties possessed by
the hair of women, of the infallible means of ascertaining whether a
child still in the womb is male or female, &c. In the others there is a
curious chaos of remarkable superstitions concerning urine, vermin, old
shoes, putrefaction, the manipulation of metals, &c.
A magical grimoire entitled _Alberti Parvi Lucii Liber de Mirabilibus
Naturæ Arcanis_, adorned with figures and talismans, appeared at Lyons,
bearing the Kabbalistic date 6516. The composition of philtres, the
interpretation of dreams, the discovery of treasures, the composition
of the hand of glory, the ring of invisibility, the sympathetic
powder, the sophistication of gold, and other marvels, are familiarly
explained; but this work is another forgery, and an insult to the
memory of a really illustrious man.
In the treatise which he wrote upon minerals, Albert informs us that he
personally tested some gold and silver which had been manufactured by
an alchemist, and which resisted six or seven exceptionally searching
fusions, but the pretended metal was reduced into actual scoriæ by
an eighth. He recognises, however, the possibility of transmutation
when performed upon the principles of Nature. He considers that all
metals are composed of an unctuous and subtle humidity, intimately
incorporated with a subtle and perfect matter.
If the purely alchemical works which are ascribed to Albertus have
any claim to authenticity, he must be ranked as a skilful practical
chemist for the period in which he flourished. He employed alembics for
distillation, and aludels for sublimation; he also made use of various
lutes, the composition of which he describes. He mentions alum and
caustic alkali, and seems to have been aware of the alkaline basis of
cream of tartar. He knew the method of purifying the precious metals
by means of lead and of gold, by cementation, likewise the method of
testing the purity of gold. He mentions red lead, metallic arsenic,
and liver of sulphur. He was acquainted with green vitriol and iron
pyrites. He knew that arsenic renders copper white, and that sulphur
attacks all the metals except gold.[H]
FOOTNOTES:
[H] Thomson, “Hist. of Chemistry,” vol. i., pp. 32, 33.
THOMAS AQUINAS.
If Albertus Magnus must be considered an adept in possession of the
philosophic stone, there is little doubt that he discovered it to
his favourite pupil, St Thomas, the most illustrious of the kings
of intelligence who glorified the scholastic period of Christian
philosophy. There are some alchemical treatises ascribed to the angel
of the schools which he certainly did not write. “That of the ‘Nature
of Minerals’ is unworthy of so great a philosopher,” says a certain
anonymous authority, “and so is the ‘Comment on the _Turba_.’ But his
_Thesaurus Alchemiæ_, addressed to Brother Regnauld, his companion
and friend, is genuine. He cites Albert in this as his master in all
things, especially in Hermetic philosophy. He addressed other books
to Regnauld on the curious sciences, amongst which is a treatise on
Judicial Astrology.”
This opinion deserves due consideration, yet in all his theological
works St Thomas carefully avoided every suspicion of alchemy,
persuaded, says the same writer, that it would bring dishonour to his
name as the height of human folly. Moreover, in one of his treatises
he distinctly states that “it is not lawful to sell as good gold that
which is made by Alchemy,” proof positive that he considered the
transmutatory art to be simply the sophistication of the precious metal.
On the other hand, the _Thesaurus Alchemiæ_, generally attributed
to him by adepts, testifies that “the aim of the alchemist is to
change imperfect metal into that which is perfect,” and asserts
the possibility of the thing. These contradictions scarcely afford
convincing proof of a common authorship; but spurious or otherwise,
the works on the Hermetic science which are attributed to the angelic
doctor are of importance in the history of alchemy. Their leading
character is secrecy, and they insist on the preservation of the
sublime operation from unworthy men, only the children of light, who
live as in the presence of God, being fit for the knowledge or custody
of so supernal a mystery.
The _Thesaurus Alchemiæ_ has the brevity which characterised St Thomas,
for it is comprised in a very few leaves. The other works attributed
to him are _Secreta Alchymiæ Magnalia_ and _De Esse et Essentia
Mineralium_, together with the comment on the _Turba_. Some of the
terms still employed by modern chemists occur for the first time in
these supposititious writings of Thomas Aquinas--_e.g._, the word
amalgam, which is used to denote a compound of mercury and some other
metal.
In the tractates addressed to Brother Regnauld, we learn that the
students of alchemy are in search of a single substance which
absolutely resists the fierce action of fire, which itself penetrates
everything, and tinges mercury. The work is a work of the hands, and
great patience is required in it. Instruments are necessary, but in the
true Hermetic operation there is but one vase, one substance, one way,
and one only operation.
ROGER BACON.
Roger Bacon was the first Englishman who is known to have cultivated
alchemical philosophy. This learned man was born in 1214, near
Ilcester, in Somerset. He made extraordinary progress in the
preliminary studies of boyhood; when his age permitted he entered the
order of St Francis, and passed from Oxford to Paris, where he learned
mathematics and medicine. On his return he applied himself to languages
and philosophy, and made such progress that he wrote grammars of the
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues.
Pronouncing the panegyric of Bacon, Figuier calls him the greatest
intellect which has arisen in England, a student of nature who was more
physician than chemist, and a scientist to whom the world owes many
extraordinary discoveries. He was almost the only astronomer of his
time, and to him we are indebted for the rectification of the Julian
Calendar, in regard to the solar year, which in 1267 he submitted to
Clement IV., but which was not put in practice till the pontificate
of Gregory. The physical analysis of the properties of lenses and
convex glasses, the invention of spectacles and achromatic lenses, the
theory, and possibly the first construction, of the telescope, are all
due to the superior and penetrating genius of Bacon.
An adequate notion of his schemes in mechanical science may be gathered
from one of his own letters--_Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de
Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturæ et de nullitate Magiæ_, Hambourg,
1618. Having undertaken to demonstrate that by the help of natural
science it is possible to actually perform the pretended prodigies
of magic, he further assures us that machines may be constructed for
navigation without the aid of rowers, in such a manner that vessels
will be borne through the water with extraordinary velocity, under the
direction of a single man. “It is equally possible to construct cars
which may be set in motion with marvellous rapidity, independently of
horses or other animals. Flying machines may also be made, the man
seated in the centre, and by means of certain contrivances beating
the air with artificial wings.” In the same way Bacon anticipated the
invention of the crane, diving apparatus, suspension bridges, &c. These
things, he declares, were known to the ancients, and may still be
recovered.
“Should we be surprised,” demands one of his biographers, “if all
these prodigies obtained for him the name of magician in an age of
superstition and ignorance? the friars of his own order refused to
let his works into their library, as if he were a man who ought to be
proscribed by society. His persecution increased till, in 1278, he
was imprisoned and forced to confess his repentance of his pains in
the arts and sciences. He was constrained to abandon the house of his
order, and to form a retreat where he might work in quiet.”
The reputation of Bacon as a magician spread over Western Europe. He
was supposed to be indebted for his wisdom to incessant communication
with demons. Wierus accuses him of goëtic magic, and erudite persons
affirm that Antichrist will make use of his enchanted mirrors for
the performance of lying miracles. He really believed in judicial
astrology and in the philosophical stone. “By neglecting the lights of
experience,” he says, “alchemy can seldom produce gold of twenty-four
carats. Few persons have carried the science to so high a point. But
with the help of Aristotle’s ‘Secret of Secrets,’ experimental science
has manufactured not only gold of twenty-four degrees, but of thirty,
forty, and onward according to pleasure.”
The application of alchemy to the extension of life was another subject
of study with Roger Bacon. The grand secret, he assures us, does not
only ensure the welfare of the commonwealth and of the individual, but
it may be used to prolong life, for that operation by which the most
inferior metals is purged from the corrupt elements which they contain
till they are exalted into the purest gold and silver, is considered by
every adept to be eminently calculated to eliminate so completely the
corrupt particles of the human body, that the life of mortality may be
extended to several centuries.
A citation by Franciscus Picus from Bacon’s “Book of the Six Sciences”
recounts how a man may become a prophet and predict the future by means
of a mirror which Bacon calls _Almuchefi_, composed in accordance with
the laws of perspective under the influence of a benign constellation,
_and after the body of the individual has been modified by alchemy_.
On the word of a man who enjoyed his full confidence, he tells us how
a celebrated Parisian savant, after cutting a serpent into fragments,
taking care to preserve intact the skin of its belly, subsequently let
loose the animal, which began immediately to roll upon certain herbs,
and their virtues speedily healed him. The experimenter examined these
herbs, and found them of a remarkably green colour. On the authority
of Artephius, he relates how a certain magician, named Tantalus, and
who was attached to the person of the King of India, had discovered
by his proficiency in planetary lore, a method of preserving life
over several centuries. He enlarges on the potency of theriac in the
excessive prolongation of life. He lauds the flesh of winged serpents
as a specific against senility in mankind. By the hygiene of Artephius
he informs us that that adept lived over a thousand years. If Plato and
Aristotle failed to prolong their existence it is not surprising, for
they were ignorant even of the quadrature of the circle, which Bacon
declares to have been well known at his time, and which is indefinitely
inferior to the grand medical doctrine of Artephius.[I]
The chemical investigations of the great English Franciscan have
proved valuable to the science which he loved. He studied carefully
the properties of saltpetre, and if he did not discover gunpowder, he
contributed to its perfection by teaching the purification of saltpetre
by its dissolution in water and by crystallisation. He also called
attention to the chemical rôle played by the air in combustion.[J]
Many of Bacon’s works still remain in manuscript, but his _Speculum
Alchimiæ_ was done into French by Girard de Tourmes, and published at
Lyons in duodecimo and octavo in 1557. _De Potestate Mirabili Artis et
Naturæ_, which is merely a chapter of the Epistle already cited, was
translated by the same hand.
In another work, entitled _Radix Mundi_, the supreme secret of Hermetic
philosophy is said to be hidden in the four elements. This treatise,
which quotes Paracelsus, is, however, an impudent forgery.
The “Mirror of Alchemy,” like other works of the philosophers, appeals
to Hermes as to a master-initiate, whose authority is not only
sufficient but final. The natural principles of all metals are argent
vive, that is, sophic mercury, and sulphur. The various proportions in
which these principles are combined, together with their degrees of
purity, constitute the sole difference between the best and the basest
metal.
FOOTNOTES:
[I] Nam quadraturam circuli se ignorasse confitetur, quod his diebus
scitur veraciter.
[J] Figuier, _L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes_, p. 97.
ALAIN OF LISLE.
An alchemical treatise, entitled _Dicta de Lapide Philosophico_,
appeared in octavo at Leyden during the year 1600. It was attributed
to Alanus Insulensis, and was reprinted in the _Theatrum Chimicum_,
Argentorati, 1662. It is denied that this work is the production of
that Alain de Lisle who was called the universal doctor, and who,
after a brilliant period passed in the University of Paris, retired to
a cloister as a lay brother, in order to be master of his time, and
to devote himself entirely to philosophy. Migne’s _Dictionnaire des
Sciences Occultes_ asserts that another Alanus flourished at the same
period, but the existence of the alchemical volume is the sole ground
for this statement. It cannot be shown, on the other hand, that Alain
practised the Hermetic Science, but he was the author of a “Commentary
on the Prophecies of Merlin.” He was made bishop of Auxerre, and died
in 1278. The publishers of alchemical treatises were accustomed to
trade upon brilliant reputations of the past by attributing worthless
works to great authorities. The name of Alanus Insulensis appearing on
the title-page of the _Dicta de Lapide Philosophico_ may perhaps be
accounted for in this manner.
The treatise itself is short and not of abnormal value. It represents
the Hermetic art as the gift of God, and counsels the neophyte to
love Him with all his heart and soul. It describes the mysteries of
sublimation, and follows preceding authorities on the problem of the
_prima materia_. Its generally indefinite and unprofitable character
from any practical standpoint should make it an exceptional field for
every species of fanciful interpretation.
RAYMOND LULLY.
The comparison of a brilliant but ephemeral reputation to “the comet
of a season” has been transferred from the region of poetry into that
of proverb, and is certainly applicable to no figure in the history
of literature or science more completely than to the subject of this
memoir. The name of Raymond Lully has indeed passed so completely
into oblivion that it awakes no recollections whatever except in
the minds of certain specialists in history and philosophy. Yet he
exercised no small influence on his generation, while for a century
after his death all intellectual Europe was acquainted with his method
for the acquisition of the sciences and his voluminous literary and
evangelistic labours. Raymond Lully united the saint and the man
of science, the philosopher and the preacher, the apostle and the
itinerant lecturer, the dialectician and the martyr; in his youth he
was a courtier and a man of pleasure; in mature age he was an ascetic
who had discovered the universal science through a special revelation
from God; after his death he was denounced as a heretic, and then
narrowly escaped beatification as a saint. While his relics worked
miracles in Majorca, colleges were founded in various parts of Europe
for teaching the _Ars Lulliana_, which was to replace the scholastic
method; but the miracles ceased, the universal science fell into
neglect, and, as the last scene in this eventful history, Raymond Lully
appears in popular legends as an adept in alchemy, whose age was
prolonged through centuries by the discovery of the elixir of life.
Having succeeded in rescuing from oblivion and misrepresentation this
singular man, whose sanctity was as eminent as his attainments were
unique, I shall here present the first true history of his life and
works to the reading public of England; the romantic narrative will be
as interesting to the general student as to the occultist and the man
of letters.
The father of Raymond Lully was a gentleman of Barcelona, who, having
served under the banner of John I., King of Arragon, at the conquest
of the Balearic Isles from the Mohammedans, was gifted with lands in
Majorca, and there settled. He was of an old and noble Catalonian
family, and was wedded to a lady whose name is not known. Though
possessed of considerable wealth, his happiness was marred by the
sterility of his wife; but, addressing themselves to the goodness of
God, the lady was eventually delivered of a son, who was named, like
his father, Raymond Lully. He was born, according to Ségui, in 1229,
but according to Jean Marie de Vernon, and other authorities, in 1235,
which, on the whole, is the more probable date. When the young Raymond
had attained the use of reason, his parents endeavoured to imbue
him with love for the liberal arts, but his mercurial and impetuous
disposition was unsuited to serious study, and he was permitted to
follow his father’s profession of arms. He was made page to the King,
with whom he acquired such high favour that he was installed as Grand
Prevôt, or Master of the Palace, and subsequently as Seneschal of the
Isles; but he employed the advantages of these distinguished positions
in the dissipations of a youth without curb or restraint. The flower of
his manhood was wasted in the gaieties of court life, in winning the
favours of ladies, and in composing amorous verses in their honour. He
spared no pains to make himself pleasing to those who were beautiful,
and his excesses were so glaring that his parents, and King James II.
himself, were forced to make great complaints to him. As a remedy for
the irregularities of his life, it was proposed that he should marry,
and a wife at once beautiful, virtuous, and wealthy was selected by
his advisers and friends. She was named Catherine de Sabots. Though he
became much attached to this lady, the bond of marriage did not prove
strong enough to confine his errant inclinations, and there was one
person in particular for whom he conceived a great passion, though he
was already the father of two male children and of one girl. This was
the Signora Ambrosia Eleonora de Castello de Gênes, whose virtue was
superior to her personal attractions, though she eclipsed in loveliness
all the beauties of the Court. She was married to a man whom she loved,
but such was the infatuation of Raymond Lully that he paid her the
most marked attentions, and on one occasion, lost to all around him
except the object of his admiration, he is said to have followed her on
horseback into the church of Palma, a town in Majorca, where she had
gone one morning to mass. So outrageous an act could not fail to cause
great scandal, more particularly on account of the high rank of both
parties concerned. The lady, thus suddenly raised to such undesirable
notoriety, took counsel with her husband as to the course which she
should pursue to put an end to the persecutions of her admirer. In the
meantime, Raymond Lully, conscious no doubt that he had exceeded all
bounds of moderation, wrote an incoherent apology, accompanied with
a sonnet, in which he particularly described the beauty of her neck.
To this the lady replied by a letter, written in the presence of her
husband, and which is here copied _verbatim_ from the old French writer
who relates this portion of the story.
LETTER from the SIGNORA DI CASTELLO DE GÊNES to
RAYMOND LULLY, which is a civil reply to a lover to
dissuade him from profaning love.
“SIR,--The sonnet which you have sent me is evidence of the
superiority of your genius and the imperfection, or, rather, the
perversity of your judgment. With what vivacity would you depict true
beauty since by your verses you even embellish ugliness! But how can
you employ such exalted talents in the laudation of a little clay
briefly tinged with vermilion? Your industry should be employed in
eradicating and not in publishing your passion.
“’Tis not that you are unworthy of the affection of the noblest woman
in the world, but you become unworthy of it by devoting yourself to
the service of one who is the least of all. Is it possible that an
intelligence created for God alone, and illuminated as it is, can be
so blind on this point?
“Abandon then a passion which deprives you of your native nobility. Do
not tarnish your reputation by the pursuit of an object which you can
never possess. I could terribly disillusion you by showing you that
what you so much admire should rather be held in aversion. Yet rest
well assured that I love you all the more truly because I appear to
have no regard for you.”
This letter served only to feed the flame in the breast of Raymond
Lully, till, other means having failed, the lady, still acting under
the advice of her husband, called her lover into her presence, and
exposed to him her breast which was almost eaten away by a cancer,
whence an offensive odour issued.
“Look on what thou lovest, Raymond Lully,” she cried, with tears in her
eyes, “Consider the condition of this wretched body in which thy spirit
centres all its hopes and pleasures, and then repent of thy useless
attempts; mourn for the time which thou hast wasted in persecuting a
being whom thou didst fondly deem perfect, but who has so dreadful
a blemish! Change this useless and criminal passion into holy love,
direct thine affections to the Creator, not to the creature, and in the
acquisition of eternal bliss take now the same pains which thou hast
hitherto vainly spent to engage me in thy foolish passion!”